Green Party Candidate
for the
Tynemouth Constituency
GREEN MANIFESTO FOR THE
TYNEMOUTH CONSTITUENCY
of
North Tyneside
By
Julia Erskine
The Green Party Candidate
This Manifesto is a summary of the key points of the National Green Party Manifesto as I feel they relate to our neighbourhood. More detailed information can be found on the Green Party website at www.greenparty.org.uk
You can also visit my Facebook page at “Elect Julia Erskine for Green MP for Tynemouth”
or email: joolsgp@live.com
| Julia Erskine Green Party Candidate for the Tynemouth Constituency |
Our Vision:
Our vision is of a fairer society that speaks to everyone’s needs, and an economy working with nature rather than against it. Of a more equal society, fairer incomes for everyone rather than huge bonuses for a select few. Of quieter, cleaner, safer streets. Of stronger local communities and the space for children to play. Of healthier, safer, better food and the quality time to appreciate it.
Green economics is the only realistic economic system. Greens understand that we need a one-planet economy that uses no more than the resources it can give us, not the fantasy economy of the other political parties.
We are in favour of measuring the welfare of people rather than the size of the economy, but size does matter. If the economy gets too big it will burst through its ecological limits.
And now we are up against one implacable and very challenging limit: the capacity of the atmosphere and the Earth to absorb our greenhouse gas emissions without over-heating. Only the Green Party is willing to face up to these limits - it is pointless and careless to say that we can have limitless economic growth without thinking about the consequences.
Our Relationship with the Government:
As citizens we think of the good of everyone and of the future, and not just what we believe to be good for ourselves, now. Creating a fair and sustainable society is a job for government at all levels – but it is also a job for citizens.
A particular concern for the Green Party is to respect the right of future generations not to be disadvantaged by damage that this generation does to the environment. We must also support solidarity between existing generations, between young and old.
We would initiate a revolution in trust. Governments have progressively got the location and balance of regulation wrong: banks are under-regulated and citizens are over-regulated. The Green Party will trust citizens and workers, not over-regulate them.
We oppose ID cards. They will not reduce or prevent crime. The money saved by not implementing the scheme will be spent on other crime prevention measures.
We would free up information. We believe that citizens should be entitled to access to information held by government except where specifically restricted. Restrictions should protect the privacy of individual citizens and national security. Information on policy formulation, the conduct of public affairs, the environment and health and safety should be freely available.
Taxation:
The Green Party may have the answers but they do not come for free, they have to be paid for which means Taxation. Details of our costings for our proposed programmes can be found at www.greenparty.org.uk but the following is a digest of the basics:
Our programme of Taxation would abolish VAT, replacing it with suitable Ecotaxes on things such as plastic bags, pesticides and fossil fuels.. We will be simplifying PAYE by, amongst other things, abolishing National Insurance as a separate tax and introducing a new higher rate of income tax. Other taxes will also be reformed.
The Council Tax will be replaced by a system of Land Value Tax.
Our Community:
The Green Party will abolish benefits and personal tax allowances and replace them with a payment to everyone of £60.00 a week - a Citizens’ Income. Doing away with most means-tested benefits will save billions of pounds – as well as lots and lots of frustration and confusion. A small selection of transitional benefits would be paid in addition to the Citizens’ Income, and it would give people the choice and make it worthwhile for them to take those small, part time or informal jobs that the present system penalises.
We will also work to promote gender equality. The pay gap per hour between men and women remains as high as 38% for part time workers; retired women’s incomes are typically 40% less than men’s. Our policies on Citizen’s Income, Citizen’s Pension, childcare and non-discrimination at work will help to fill these gaps.
Care we offer to the Elderly:
We would offer free personal care to the elderly and introduce a Citizens’ Pension, increasing the old age pension for a single person to £100 per week as a first move towards a Citizen's Pension.
The Citizens’ Income and Pension will be funded by a taxation system that promotes equality and sustainability.
Housing and living space:
We all need somewhere to live; as such the Green Party would resume direct investment in ecologically sustainable Council and other social housing. The “right to buy” will be replaced and a “right to rent” giving people being re-possessed the option to rent back their home from the local council.
Our present homes need to be more energy efficient and self sufficient, so we will introduce a programme of free home insulation and encourage the development of functional microgeneration systems.
New-builds will be required to meet excellent energy standards both in the construction and in the ongoing life of the buildings.
Self build and local co-op builders and other such groups will be encouraged.
We would also spearhead a revival in public spaces such as libraries, parks, playgrounds and meeting rooms.
Health:
We believe that prevention is better than cure and this responsibility can be better dealt with by the local community rather than nationally. We believe in a “free at point of access” Health amp&; Sickness service including complementary medicine, dentistry and prescriptions..
We also recognise that our food and drink is a vital part of keeping healthy, so we would provide many more allotments and community gardens to not only grow good food but provide exercise and healthy leisure activities. We will work to localise the food chain, and protect biodiversity and human and animal health.
Work:
We work too hard. So we would introduce a 35-hour working week which will both improve the work/life balance and help to spread the workload.
Green workforce training and environmental community programme including training courses for jobs will be introduced.
Sure Start Children's Centres have been proven successful and so will be enhanced and expanded.
We support a National Minimum Wage of £8.17 per hour until the Citizen’s Income is introduced.
It is important that people have the right to join or form a trade union, to obtain union representation and to take industrial action. We also support moves towards workplace democracy and a greater role for mutuals like worker co-operatives.
Heritage, Media & Sport:
Tynemouth has a great deal of heritage from the Priory and Spanish City to the parks and allotments across the area. The Green Party would introduce a range of measures that will preserve the past without restricting the future.
It recognises that there are a range of community organisations such as football clubs and theatres. These will be allowed to transform into mutuals owned by local people.
We would abolish the broadcasting licence fee while maintaining the BBC and its excellent local services.
We would ensure that all have communities have digital access, thereby obliging BT to provide affordable high speed broadband-capable infrastructure to every household.
We would strengthen controls on advertising directed at children
Our Economy:
The Green economy is based upon the principal of sustainable non-growth systems that depend upon local participation while using sustainable global resources. As such we will re-establish local Post Offices, encourage local community banks and mutuals and most importantly local & regional shops.
The transition to a sustainable fair economy will create many thousands of Green New Deal jobs. It will also give recognition to many people who work is not at present recognised.
There will be a range of changes to the present restrictions to setting up local Green businesses.
Transport:
We would prioritise transport modes according to the following hierarchy:
We would return the railways and Tyne & Wear Metro system to public ownership and re-regulate bus services nationally.
We would provide affordable, effective local transport and would make the cost of private cars reflect their community impact
We would reduce heavy freight on the roads shifting it to the railways developing shuttle systems such as those used in the Channel Tunnel for mass freight transport.
Unnecessary air travel will be discouraged.
Waste & Recycling:
The Green Party wants to first reduce, then reuse, and only in the end, recycle. So called ‘waste materials’, are our secondary resources so they should not be squandered. To recycle effectively we must collect and use the products created from secondary resources.
Products and packaging should be designed with a view to what happens when they cease to be useful. There will always be a need for some disposal of end product secondary resources but we would keep this as close to zero as possible.
A Green Party Government would make financial resources available for local communities to deal with their own secondary resources.
Energy:
We aim to obtain about half our energy from renewable sources by 2020. This does not include the present Nuclear options which we will fade out, using the money liberated to fund safer renewable systems, including providing all schools and colleges with renewable energy systems.
Obtaining energy from sustainable botanical sources will be encouraged.
Law and Order:
We will set up a system of restorative justice. The primary aim will be to restore and improve the position of the victim and the community. However, as well as the offender being required to make amends, we would help stop re-offending by providing reading and writing courses for UK prisoners.
We would not introduce ID cards and would instead use the money in crime prevention measures, including more community policing, more local police stations and the return of park keepers, bus conductors and others who have an important effect on social order.
We would improve the design of our cities to provide safer streets and public spaces and ensure universal access to high quality youth facilities and repairing damage done to public amenities and spaces promptly.
We would also replace ASBOs with a Civil Law Injunction Programme.
Local Services:
The quality of our lives has a lot to do with the quality of local services. Services must be accessible. This means they must be easy and affordable to reach by public transport. It also makes environmental sense to have good, local services.
The Green Party believes that things should be decided at a local level whenever possible. Decentralise and re-localise. Trust communities of local people to make the change. Key services must be free at the point of delivery. However, this will need paying for! The Green Party believes that we should pay for these services with a taxation system that promotes fairness and rewards behaviour that’s good for society and good for the environment.
The Green Party opposes the trend towards bigger schools and prisons, and more centralised surgeries and post offices. ‘Efficiency savings’ are bought at a high social cost: isolation, inaccessibility, impersonality, remoteness. They also make our communities less able to cope with change. Communities and services must be on a human scale. Size matters.
Education:
Education should be on a human scale so we would increase funding available to education, using the money to fund and legislate for smaller schools and smaller class sizes. We would re-introduce free higher education, abolish student fees and reintroduce sensible maintenance grants. We would also expand free pre-school care
Teachers should teach, we would abolish the remaining SATS tests.
What we eat is vital to educational performance so we will provide free school meals for all using good quality locally-sourced or fair-trade food.
In order to learn a child must feel safe. Many don’t. They are bullied for various reasons including how they look, how they perform in the classroom, their race, their religion, their sexual orientation. We will introduce a programme to educate teachers, administrators, pupils and parents in these matters.
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